Chris & Debby

2011-07-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday lots of people turned out to watch the construction crews place the statue of the Angel Moroni on top of the temple in Brigham City. He arrived onm a flat bed truck, all wrapped up, and when he was finally lifted off the truck, a huge cheer and loud clapping greeted him.

The estimate several days before said there might be 15,000 people to watch, but it rained heavily and I would guess that there were about 4-5,000 people there. The rain set back the actual placement of the statue by about two hours, but it was still exciting.

The estimate is that the building will be ready next summer. It is nearly all enclosed, and will soon be weather-tight for the winter.

2011-07-23T17:49:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we had a birthday for Hannah and Madeline (Maddy) Jeppsen (Kami and Chris's girls). We discovered that Hannah swings a bat left handed and swings pretty hard for her size and age. This picture shows her trying to break open the Princess Castle pinata. It took many more swings from all the little ones present before the pinata was separated from its candies.

Maddie took her swings, too, but I don't think she quite got the idea. However, when the candy started to fall from the pinata, she knew what to do then. The big kids were better at it, but with help from several of the moms, it eventually evened out.

We have known for several weeks that Kami is expecting, and yesterday she had an ultrasound. She is due in December and will be having a little boy. That will even out the grandkids at four of each. We are all very excited.

2011-04-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

We had to really watch the kids because they not only wanted to find eggs, they wanted to pick the tulips. There aren't many flowers yet because it has been so cold and rainy. Now they say it will snow Friday! I guess we'll enjoy them while we can.

Easter 2011

2011-04-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Five of the grandkids came to our house Sunday afternoon for a short Easter egg hunt. The little ones (Madeline and Grady) didn't care so much about finding eggs--they just wanted to run around outside.

We think they found all the eggs that were hidden. If not I guess we'll find them by smell later on. After the hunt, we all went inside and had our traditional ham and potato salad lunch. I though we made enough salad for an army, but since everyone like it so much there wasn't a lot left. I told them they could eat all they wanted, but cou8ldn't take any home. So of course Kami came the next day to get some of "her" potato salad.

Our Trip to Disney World

2011-04-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

We spent the last week of March at Disney World in Orlando, Florida with Chris, Kami, Hannah, Maddie, Kelly and Malia. We had a wonderful time, but now I have to teach another year to pay for the vacation. You'll also notice I have posted a couple of pictures of the Spring Training game we went to at ESPN's Wide World of Sports

Roy Halladay was pitching for the Phillies and it looks like Chipper Jones is back for the Braves. Deb and I had no idea that everything was so spread out. The park is about 50 square miles and some days it felt like we walked every mile. Deb had an electric scooter, so sometimes she let me borrow it--BUT NOT MUCH. Some day it would be great to take our whole family on a vacation together. Don't know when, though.

Miss Me??

2011-03-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

I was looking at my children's blogs and noticed that I hadn't blogged anything for over a year.

Shame on me! I'm not guaranteeing anything, but I'll try to do better.

Last time I bragged about two new grandchildren, Maddy Belle and Grady. They are now almost fully grown. (Maybe not quite, but close.)

Here's a picture of the whole Larson clan last Christmas when JC and Carin brought their family home to Utah from Alabama. Note that there's another baby. Kamden was born in October of 2010. We're now up to seven grandbabies and holding. (As far as I know--I'm usually the last to know.)

Now I have remembered my password, the is more to come.

2009-09-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

Here we have our two newest grandchildren. Brady Robert Munns is on the left. He was born August 28. The little cutie in the bow is Madeline Belle Jeppsen, born July 13. They are both growing like crazy and getting better looking every day (Just like their grandpa!!).

Getting Ready for School 2009-2010

2009-09-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

Upper left: Looking down the main hall south at the new BEHS.

Above: looking north down the same hall.

Left: Looking down Washington Hall, the south wing, as furnitureis being unpacked and loaded into the rooms.

Well, we're in the new classroom wings, just in time for the first day of school. The week before school started, things looked pretty bleak, but due to lots of hard work from construction workers, and staff members, plus students and folks from the community, we're in. The new hallway is the most impressive visually, and Iwill update with more pictures soon (at least sooner than three months).

2009-05-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

The steel workers started putting up roof trusses yesterday (May 14, 2009) and by the end of the day had put up the three main joists. Today they are supposed to be putting up the large truss that connects the two classroom buildings together on the second floor.

There's only three weeks of school left so I hope they continue their breakneck speed. I won't be around much after June 3.

2009-02-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

This photo looks down on what used to be the faculty parking lot. It will be the new cafeteria/commons area when the dust finally clears...in the fall of 2010. The shot is from the boys bathroom on the second floor on the south end of the building.

February 23, 2009

2009-02-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

OK, I know I haven't sent anything for a long time. Sorry. Here is a picture taken last Friday of the new building progress. We are supposed to move in on August 1. Hmmm...
What do you think? I am going out tomorrow to the SECOND FLOOR to take some more pictures, so I'll post some of those.

First snowfall.

2008-10-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

We got our first snowfall of the year
Sunday afternoon. It only snowed about two inches, but it's been cold so it stayed around. By Friday it's supposed to be back up around 70 degrees. Ah, the Utah weather.

This photo is of Rob, Kristen and Haylee coming across the parking lot after church. It wasn't snowing when they went to church.

More construction

2008-10-08T07:02:00.000-07:00

This is the new softball complex, looking southeast. It is directly south about 15 yards of the baseball diamond. You can see the natatorium in the middle right of the picture. The plan is to lay sod on both the baseball and softball diamonds, but to seed the soccer field. The soccer field will take about 18 months to be ready to play on, while softball and baseball should be ready lin the Spring.

Construction

2008-10-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of the new baseball field at Box Elder High School. It is part of the $30 million building project at the school and includes a new softball and soccer field. This picture is taken looking north east from the approximate middle of the old soccer field.

Footings

2008-09-09T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here , the crew is working on the footings for the south classroom addition. The poured these first, then moved to the north addition.

2008-09-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

The BE School District is building a nearly complete new high school. They will eventuall tear down about 80% of the old school and put up new stuff. This is the day they made the first cement pour and Darrell (in purple shirt) got to help vibrate the concrete down into the forms .

The crews are really making progress now so I will try to make new posts each week or so. It's already fun to watch the walls start to go up. See the next picture.

Peach Days 2008

2008-09-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Melissa, Carin's younger sister, was an attendant at in the Peach Queen pageant last week, so she got to ride on the float. She is the beauty in the purple dress. The parade was fun, but the most fun was having everyone home for the weekend. All except Carin, JC and Zenock of course, because they moved to Washington D.C. last week.

We had peach cobbler, watched the parade, went to all the craft booths, had peach cobbler, looked at the window displays, had lunch after the parade, and all the other Peach Days stuff you do. It was great.

Big D

2008-07-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

This is the infamous grassy knoll where "other shots" were allegedly fired at JFK in November of 1963. Supposedly there were gunmen behind the white picket fence you see in the middle right of the photo.
J. C., Debby and Zenock at Dealy Plaza, next door to the Texas Schoolbook Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald hid out, then shot President Kennedy.
This shot is looking at the front of the TSBD. Oswald was on the sixth floor (second from the top) on the far right.
The top window in this photo is the one from which Harvey fired the fatal shot. There is a museum on the sixth floor which takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to view. For me, the whole experience was very emotional. Deb too! Modst of the people talked in a hushed tone of voice, or not at all. And yes, I bought a book to tell all about it.

Crater of Diamonds

2008-07-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Another highlight of the trip was visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park. It's the only diamond mine in the world where you can search for diamonds and keep what you find. Unfortunately, we didn't find any; however, I did bring home some dirt to look through. I wanted to go to Mt. Ida, which is famous for giant crystals, but it was just a little too far away.

Zenock

2008-07-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Of course the highlight of the trip was getting to spend time with J. C. and his family. It took Zenock a whole week to warm up to grandpa, but finally when we were saying our good byes in the Clinton Library parking lot he gave me a kiss and a big cheesy smile (see below). As you can see, he liked Deb a lot better. She got lots of kisses and hugs, while most of the time he just gave me the eye.

Arkansas Trip

2008-07-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

In early June Debby and I went to Arkansas to visit J.C., Carin and Zenock. Wow, did they ever keep us busy!
One of the places we stopped was Little Rock's Central High School, where the Little Rock 9 integrated the high school in 1957. There is a visitors' center across the street that tells all the gory details. Our visit was very emotional. The picture on the right shows the front of the building, which is gorgeous! You can see four larger than life statues at the top of the white facade. There is also a reflecting pond in front of the building--all-in-all it was very impressive. The school is still a working high school with 2,400 students. They run tours twice a day during the school year. I bet that isn't a distraction to high school kids! There;s more below.

2008-05-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

InFebruary I was nominated for the KSL Teacher Feature. and last week we went to LaCaille, a fancy restaurant in Salt Lake City. It was very nice, the food was good, and the governor spoke. We schmoozed with people and had a great time. The restaurant was ritzy, and we still get to go once more, probably this summer. I have heard it's very expensive!

May 19, 2008

2008-05-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday Debby and I went to our first ever dance recital as grandma and grandpa. Malia was a clown (see picture), a cow girl, Minnie Mouse, took a bath in a bucket and other stuff. It was very entertaining. After the recital, she got to choose a place for lunch so we went to Dairy Queen because they have hot dogs (she doesn't like hamburgers).

Malia and Haylee

2008-04-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here you see the two oldest grandchildren. This is an old picture, but it gives you some idea of how cute they are!

US

2008-04-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

Deb and I are now empty-nesters. Kelly, our oldest, is living in Salt Lake City and has a nearly-five-year-old named Malia. Malia is excited to go to kindergarten next fall.

Kristen is married to Rob and they have a nearly-three-year-old named Haylee. She is the singer in the family right now. She knows all the primary songs and sings them at the top of her lungs. Kristen and Rob live just two doors north of us.

J.C. and his wife Carin are living in Texarkana, Arkansas while he goes to school. They have a little boy, Zenock, who just had his first birthday. It goes without saying that we miss them a lot.

Kami and her husband Chris live a few blocks from us and they have an 8 1/2-month old named Hannah. She is just learning to pull herself up to the furniture. Their fun is just beginning!

First Blog

2008-04-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is a big experiment. Anyone who knows me knows I have a lot to say, and this seems like a good way to let lots of people know what's going on in our family. Besides, I like to take pictures and now I have a place to post them.

I'll work on this and after a while, hopefully it will be worth looking at. Stayed Tuned.